Gasparino Barzizza

As one of the first Italian Humanists, he taught rhetoric, grammar, and moral philosophy with the aim of reviving Latin literature.

[1] Born Gasparino di Pietrobuono in the village of Barzizza, near Bergamo, he studied grammar and rhetoric at Pavia.

Remaining there to teach from 1403 to 1407, he subsequently moved to Venice to serve as private tutor to the Barbaro family.

Gasparino died at Milan around 1431, after which Lorenzo Valla succeeded him as chair of rhetoric in Pavia.

[2] By his marriage to Lucrezia Alliardi, Gasparino had a son, named Guimforte (Guiniforto) Barzizza (c. 1406–63), who became a distinguished scholar and writer.

Portrait of Gasparino Barzizza, designed by Rosalba Maria Salvioni, engraved by Anton Fritz.
The first book printed in France: Epistolae ("Letters"), by Gasparino Barzizza. It was printed in 1470 by the press established by Johann Heynlin .